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PHILADELPHIA 



Social Science Association. 



Tfje pendiqg pchool problems. 



(Read at a Meeting of the Association; 



APRIL 5Tfi, 1883, 



PJ{OF, M, B, jS^YDE^, 



Published by the 

PHILADELPHIA SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION, 

720 Locust Street, Philadelphia. 



v - 






?HE FOLLOWING 



IS A LIST OF PAPERS 
THE ASSOCIATION. 



READ BEFORE 



Compulsory Education. By Lorin Blodget. Out of print. 

Arbitration as a Remedy for Strikes. By Eckly B. Coxe. Out of print. 

The Revised Statutes of Pennsylvania. By R. 0. McMurtrie. Out of print. 

Local Taxation. By Thomas Cochran. Out of print. 

Infant Mortality. By Dr. S. Parry. Out of print. 

Statute Law and Common Law, and the Proposed Revision in Pennsylvania. 
By E. Spencer Miller. Out of print. 

Apprenticeship. By James S. Whitney. 

The Proposed Admendments to the Constitution of Pennsylvania. By F. Jordan. 

Vaccination. By Dr. J. S. Parry. Out of print. 

The Census. By Lorin Blodget. 

The Tax System of Pennsylvania. By Cyrus Elder. Out of print. 

The work of the Constitutional Convention. By A. Sydney Biddle. 

What shall Philadelphia do with its Paupers ? By Dr. Isaac Ray. 

Proportional Representation. By S. Dana Horton. 

Statistics Relating to Births, Deaths, Marriages, etc., in Philadelphia. By John 
Stockton-Hough, M. D. 

On the Value of Original Scientific Research. By Dr. Ruschenberger. 

On the Relative Influence of City and Country Life on Morality, Health, Fecun- 
dity, Longevity, and Morality. By John Stockton-Hough, M. D. 

The Public School System of Philadelphia. By James S. Whitney. 

The Utility of Government Geological Surveys. By Prof. J. P. Lesley. 

The Law of Partnership. By J. G. Rosengarten. 

Methods of Valuation of Real Estate for Taxation. By Thomas Cochran. 

The Merits of Cremation. By Persifor Frazer, Jr. 

Outlines of Penology. By Joseph R. Chandler. 

Brain Disease, and Modern Living. By Dr. Isaac Ray. Out of print. 

Hygiene of the Eye, Considered with Reference to the children in our Schools. 
By Dr. F. D. Castle. 

The Relative Morals of City and Country. By William S. Pierce. 

Silk Culture and Home Industry. By Dr. Samuel Chamberlaine. 

Mind Reading, etc. By Persifor Frazer, Jr. 

Legal Status of Married Women in Pennsylvania. By N. D. Miller. 

The Revised Statutes of the United States. By Lorin Blodget. 

Training of Nurses for the Sick. By John H. Packard, M. D. 

The Advantages of the Co-operative Feature of Building Associations. By E. 
Wrigley. 

The Operations of our Building Associations. By Joseph I. Doran. 

Wisdom in Charity. By Rev. Charles G. Ames. Out of print. 

Free Coinage and a Self- Adjusting Ratio. By Thomas Balch. 

Building Systems for Great Cities. By Lorin Blodget. 

Metric System. By Persifor Frazer, Jr. 

Cause and Cure of Hard Times. By R. J. Wright. 

House-Drainage and Sewerage. By Geerge E. Waring, Jr. 

A Plea for a State Board of Health. By Benjamin Lee, M. D. 

The Germ-Theory of Disease, and its Present Bearing upon Public and Personal 
Hygiene. By Joseph G. Richardson, M. D. 

Delusive Methods of Municipal Financiering. By Wm. F. Ford. Not printed. 

Technical Education. By A. C. Rembaugh, M. D. 

The English Methods of Legislation Compared with the American. By S. Sterne. 

Thoughts on the Labor Question. By Rev. D. O. Kellogg. 

On the Isolation of Persons in Hospitals for the Insane. By Dr. Isaac Ray. 

Notes on Reform Schools. By J. G. Rosengarten. Out of print. 

Philadelphia Charity Organization. By Rev. Wm. H. Hodge. 

Public Schools in their Relations to the Community. By James S. Whitney. 

Industrial and Decorative Art in Public Schools. By Charles G. Leland. 

Penal and Reformatory Institutions. By J. G. Rosengarten. 

Nominations for Public Office. By Mayer Sulzberger. 

Municipal Government. By John C. Bullitt. 

Apprenticeship as it Was and Is. By Addison B. Burk. 

Religious and Political Aspect of the' Indian Question. By Herbert Welsh. 

The American Aristocracy. By Lincoln L. Eyre. 

A Plea for a New City Hospital. By Thomas W. Barlow. 

Some Practical Aims in School Hygiene. By Dr. D. F. Lincoln. 

The Pending School Problems. By Prof. M. B. Snyder. 

Municipal Government. By Wm. Righter Fisher. 



>\^ n 









The Pending School Problems. 



The tendencies of each era, as well as the given conditions of society 
determine, not only the problems of adult social life, but those of 
school life as well. As little would we now wage relentless war against 
the exclusively classic bias of the schools of the last century, as against 
the slavery in question twenty- five years ago. The battle has, in each 
field been, to all intents, fought and won. But in each case, do we 
still face problems of progress. The social problems concerning 
adult life, however, habitually receive thoughtful consideration with a 
view to actual solution, while those pertinent to life at the school 
period, are too frequently the subject of fruitless declamation. 

We perhaps forget that there is a sense in which there may be pro- 
gress even in School Problems. It is true, that time out of mind, they 
have been, and indeed, for all time to come may be put in the same 
form of language. Yet their solution is conditioned by the necessities 
and negligencies of the period and of the social condition. It there- 
fore seemed to me, a creature of the existing regime, that a discussion 
of the Pending School Problems, and their probable solutions, might 
well engage as thoughtful a consideration and as hearty an interest on 
the part of this association and of the public, as that accorded to the 
other great Social Problems. With all the pathos of immature years, 
do your own children here plead for relief from the bondage of purely 
intellectual discipline, from the thraldom of neglect in vital matters, 
happening somewhere between the home and the school, and finally 
from the tyranny of an irresponsible School System. 

Undoubtedly the School Problem first inviting a thorough considera- 
tion, is that of providing, in some efficient manner, for the physical 
welfare of the children. It might seem to those who look at school 
life from a convenient distance, that no grave fears need be entertained 
about the health of children, and that some very good people are, 
unnecessarily, disquieting themselves and others about this matter. 
We might be told that parents complain but little, although it must be 
admitted, they do at times a little complain when hopeless disease or 
premature death have put the child's case beyond all the human courts 
of complaint. The teachers themselves, says some one, who live and 

(3) 



breathe in the midst of the facts, seem not to know of this "great 
problem." It would in me seem unkind to admit, in them, the in- 
difference of positive ignorance concerning this matter, and still more 
so, to agree that easy going motives may, in any manner be mili- 
tating against the interests of the child. I ask you, therefore, not to 
regard as criminal, an indifference, which, although in full view of the 
violation of hygienic laws, results from the belief, the stolid belief, that 
under our present system of management, there can be no efficient 
method of securing health conditions. To those, however, who are 
conversant with the actual school and home life of children in large 
cities, and who, at the same time, borrow the eyes of the physiologist, 
this apathy, so general on the part of parents, directors, teachers, and 
the public must, to the last degree, seem grave. 

Without stopping to point out how it comes about, that so little 
practical attention is given to a sound body as vital to the happiness 
of the child ; without reciting the catalogue of delusive hopes cherished 
by parents, and the false, yet attractive, educational theories, all of 
which lie at the base of this apathy, let us more closely consider the 
facts. 

To start with the coarser class, I might well pass the lack, in our 
school rooms, of proper heat, adequate ventilation, suitable light and 
general comforts i as having already been so earnestly portrayed, and 
the remedies in construction so definitely shown by Dr. Lincoln before 
this association. Yet I am quite willing to add, to what he has said 
on this point, the trifle of my own experience and observation. 
Granted that the improved school houses, suggested by Dr. Lincoln, 
were at hand, I much doubt whether a system that maintains ignorant, 
lazy, and occasionally, superanuated janitors, would not violate any 
plan aiming at pure air, good heat, cleanliness and comfort. How 
utterly invulnerable some of these janitors are to the plea of child and 
teacher, for plenty of heat and pure air must, I am sorry to say, be left 
to a vivid imagination. As incompetent and unwilling, I need not 
characterize all janitors, nor even janitors as a class, but I must call in 
question a system that allows any indifferent dolt thus to trifle with the 
health of your child and with my health and energies as a teacher. I 
charge, that frequently school-rooms are, after the days use, " dusted 
up," and then tightly closed, lest the foul organic effluvia should be- 
come oxidized, and the building rendered sweet. Take but three 
breaths of school-room air, some fair afternoon, and feel every sense 
recoil with a shudder of disgust. Then, with the impression still 
vivid, imagine that with this same noxious month-old atmosphere, a 



darling young life, of keener sensibilities, is daily drugged. To com- 
plete the picture, you may add a refined teacher, who, to all seeming, 
is alive only to the necessity of urging and enforcing the memorized 
tasks required by the system, but at heart, sullenly grieves the wrongs 
of a system that scarcely allows, much less enforces, attention to pro- 
per health conditions. How many children have, by this ignorance 
and indifference of the system, been chilled and poisoned into devel- 
opment of disease is, on account of the slow and unequal pace of 
deterioration, known only to medical men and Providence. 

Coming now to the finer point of the over-tasking of the nervous 
system, we have before us a large field for criticism. That there is 
such a thing as overcrowding the capacities of children, is a truth, not 
at all admitted to the rank of an axiom in our system. For, instead of 
endeavoring to avoid catastrophies so far reaching in misery to the 
future adult, the system is rather planned so as to incite the teacher to 
require, for the most part, memorized acquirement as the requisite to 
advancement. With eagerness, the teacher stimulates and the child 
memorizes, until just before or after some examination-day, the un- 
fortunate child, mentally, or at least physically, breaks down. The 
case may attract public notice, and thus in the newspapers, finally 
beset down to the criminal demands of the teacher. But the injustice 
thus done the latter, passes without comment. Ignorant of practical 
physiology and hygiene, the average teacher undoubtedly is ; but what 
shall we say of the system that allows the exercise of such unrestrained 
ignorance ? More than this. How shall we characterize a system 
that, by ranking the teacher according to her success in this memory- 
cramming process puts the stamp of virtue on overtasking. When 
even the teacher is driven to tears of distress by the demands of exam- 
ination, in what condition of mind can you expect the sensitive child 
to be ? In addition to pointing a physiological moral, I might have 
emphasized the false principles of living inculcated by these methods, 
but that would have been foreign to my present purpose. 

In connection with the matter of over-stimulus, Kintergarten and 
primary schools, require special attention. Through the benevolent 
interest of some enlightened ladies of this city, the Kintergarten are 
upon us. And as at so tender an age our children are to fall into the 
hands of the teacher, we ought particularly to run out the danger 
signal. No one, indeed, who has thoughtfully looked into the Kinter- 
garten system, can deny, that it may do important service in those 
unoccupied years of the child's life. Yet I have the soundest reasons 
for cautioning the patrons of this enterprise, to beware of overstim- 



ulating precocious intelligence. Without taking any special pains to 
collect information on this point, I have, within a few weeks, learned 
of three grave cases of physical trouble attributed to the influence of 
so called Kintergarten. In two of the cases, the special trouble 
developed, was St. Vitus dance, and in the third, the child who had 
been kept perforating its cards by the hour, was actually driven to the 
insanity of " perforating ; ' its mate's eye out. It would then seem, 
that premature development of disease, is an acquisition perhaps not 
more precious than free unfettered growth, with the happiness of 
health and of natural ignorance. 

It is not, however, necessary to put the ban upon this great enter- 
prise, if it will start and grow from a sound hygienic basis. And lest 
I might appear to the ladies interested in this matter, too severe and 
too definite, I may be allowed to quote a few sentences from an English 
lady, Miss Emily Shirreff, who is at once a keenly intuitive writer, and 
one of the cleverest of advocates for Kintergarten. In arguing for the 
use of the female intellect, as a force in our education, she says : 
" Thence it is evident, that when women are appealed to as the natural 
educators, it is implied that they will make education their study, and 
acquire the knowledge requisite for assisting the mental and physical 
development of their children during those years which prepare the 
course of all future years. There is no need that they should have 
made a deep study of either physiology or mental philosophy, but un- 
less they clearly realize, that mental and bodily health depend upon 
conditions which can be learnt only through some elementary knowl- 
edge of these two sciences, how can they ensure those conditions for 
their children, or how judge if they are or are not observed in the 
educational institutions, Kintergarten, or schools in which their 
children are to be placed." I would point to this significant advice as 
particularly worthy the attention of the ladies struggling for the higher 
education, as pronouncing with emphasis alike, the necessity for a 
physiological basis for education, and the demand for woman genuinely 
informed in such trifles as physiology and hygiene. And if such 
knowledge must be deemed important to the women who would pre- 
tend to any sort of proper control over the education of their own 
children, how much more definitely and decidedly should systems of 
training and superintendence of such systems be founded on more 
than a superficial knowledge of physiology and mental philosophy. 
Of Primary Schools, we must remark, that the long hours of confine- 
ment, cramping little muscles into one attitude, and holding little 
brains to uniformity of task, need serious attention. If little children 



must, to the gratification of parents, be kept away from home so many- 
hours, shall we not adopt the trust, and at once introduce play, gym- 
nastics and some species of manual training ? 

From long confinement to books, girls, as being of a more sensitive 
nature, suffer, perhaps, the more. Their case, indeed, deserves special 
attention. Romp and play is, if ever indulged in by girls, of cities, 
never allowed to go through their growing " teens." This absence of 
play, when joined with burdensome school tasks, is fatal to health. 
Our procrustean system is here lacking in the spirit of true motherhood 
and fatherhood. Girlhood, with its issue into healthy, and conse- 
quently happy womanhood, is violated, not only by the ordinary 
course of school life, but, moreover, by the false public sentiment 
which demands for the girl a completion of her education and ac- 
complishments, at a period when growth and the determination of 
physiological functions bid us wait for the years that are now dawdled 
away in both physical and mental inactivity. 

To emphasize the fact, that girlhood, at the school period, needs 
particular attention, I might quote warnings from all the well-informed 
in the entire medical fraternity, but shall limit myself to a few sentences 
from two eminent Gynecologysts of this city, and who represent in 
turn, the two schools that unfortunately divide our medical house. 
In a lecture on " Nerve-tire," and The Ills of Womanhood, Dr. 
William Goodell* says: "Now, in these days of mental overstrain, 
nerve-tire, or neurasthenia, as it is technically called, is so common a 
disorder in our over-taught, over-sensitive, and over-sedentary women, 
that in its successful treatment, every physician has an abiding 
interest.'' And further on in the same lecture, he says : " Take, for 
instance, this too common picture from life : ' A girl ' in the bloom of 
youth and health, ' and without an ache, is over-tasked and over-taxed 
at school, and her health begins to fail." She goes through all the 
usual nomenclature of symptoms, which you can readily pardon me for 
not quoting ; from suffering she lapses into exhaustion, and, to use the 
Doctor's own words, "unimproved, she drags herself from one con- 
sulting room to another, until finally, in despair, she settles down to 
a sofa in a darkened room and lapses into hopeless invalidism." 
"Now, what is the interpretation of this train of symptoms? What 
mean all these aches and sufferings ? I can not pretend to give," says 
the Doctor, "the precise pathology, but I take it to be something like 
this: The yet developing nerve centres of this brain-crammed girl 



*" Lessons in Gynecology," p. 333. 



were unable to cope with the strain thrown on them, and they broke 
down. But jaded nerves make poor blood and faulty circulation." 
From these come cerebral and spinal irritation, together with all those 
previously indicated ills which, physiologically succeeding each other, 
gradually convert the once happy girl into the hopeless woman. 

Dr. J. Nicholas Mitchell, of the homeopathic side, in a recent letter, 
thus plainly puts the matter : 

"In answer to your question regarding the effect of too close study 
and application on the part of young girls who have come under my 
observation, I wish to say : 

"That on many occasions I have been struck with the evident 
harm that has arisen to girls, with blooming health in their childhood 
— with every promise of future usefulness and health — through a too 
great desire on the part of their parents and teachers, to push on the 
bright intellect they may display, by inuring them to hard study and 
close application. Such girls I have seen, after they have finished 
their studies, after they have, perhaps, graduated from their schools 
with the highest honors they could get, but with their womanhood 
apparently destroyed, their health shattered, their nerves in such con- 
stant tension, that they were unable to look forward to anything but 
long drawn out existence of suffering. The pushing on of their brains 
at a time when their entire system was but just developing, when their 
womanhood was but budding, has sacrificed their womanhood to their 
brains. 

When I see a woman of clear complexion, of good form, and with 
■every appearance of health in her young womanhood, one of those 
women who are the charms of social life, and who are able to fulfill 
their functions as mothers and wives, I am accustomed, on inquiry, to 
find that they graduated low in their class ; that they were the dispair 
of their teachers and the madcaps of the school." 

It would tire you to state every phase of this matter, but I assure you, 
much yet remains to be said. The sum of it all is, that between the 
long school hours, with additional tasks to be done outside of school, 
and the lack of attention to physical exercise, both at school and at 
home, the child sedulously and sedatively studies, and so grows mus- 
cularly flabby, intellectually drivelling, and emotionally hypersensi- 
tive. It seldom, unless by accident, learns the true happiness of 
muscular activity. 

As in our cities at present neither school nor home allows suitable 
exercise, either school hours must for this purpose be shortened, or, 
better still, the proper physical exercise be given at school in gymnas- 



tics and old-fashioned play ; or, best of all, by these combined with 
some useful muscular work. If the community set about the matter 
in the right spirit, it would not be so difficult to provide playshops 
and workshops hard by each, school-house, that would become the 
delight of the child. While I would never allow any system, by long 
hours, to crowd out the spontaneity of growth and play, it seems to 
me that we might conserve and utilize the forces now checked and 
wasted. Much of the school material and apparatus needed in the 
illustration of the sciences, arts and industries, could, in a suitable 
construction-shop, be manufactured by the boys and girls themselves. 
We would thus secure not only relaxation from books, but also em- 
ployment and training for the hands. Moreover we would habituate 
children to varied activities, and thus inculcate the true philosophy 
of healthful mental and physical life. 

In concluding the discussion of this physiological problem, I can- 
not but refer briefly to other grave questions, which the teacher must 
at times either settle or completely ignore. 

Children in ill health are kept at school. No suitable laws or rules 
on this subject being in force, the teacher is made the unwilling in- 
strument in aggravating disease. Born, for example, with defective 
eyesight, many a child, owing to the severe strain put upon the unwil- 
ling organ, develops either a listless dullness, or a more unwelcome 
mental irritability. We have in our schoolrooms the writhings of the 
epileptic without compensating mental advantage to him, and with per- 
haps positive injury to others. The chronically sickly and idiotic may 
need an education, but the crowded rooms of our Public Schools 
should first be reserved for the healthy and sane. 

Matters like these are not mythical, but come under the notice of 
the teacher daily. 

It appears, then, that the demand for authoritative physiological 
supervision of our schools in large cities is made quite evident by the 
facts, and needs no further argument. Medical Supervision is indeed 
not a novelty. Already the progressive educators of Europe are agi- 
tating to effective issue, the supervision of the health conditions of 
their schools; and American thought is already awakening to the im- 
portance of this matter. The method of introducing such supervision 
is, moreover, vital to the best results. If we consign this supervision 
to Beards of Health, we cut into two a problem that requires unity of 
solution. We cannot separate the consideration of the amount of 
time and attention that can be given either to play, gymnastics, or 
work, from the general problem of the conduct of schools. So with 



the entire list of physiological questions. To one and the same direc- 
tion, then, must be consigned the problem in its entirety. If Phila- 
delphia ever rises to the height of this problem, it will assign this 
supervision to a professional teacher, or body of teachers, of a liberal 
type of culture, and through him or them devise ways and means for 
securing and preserving health in childhood ; for bringing the Medi- 
cal Profession into closer relation with the schools, and all, in har- 
mony with the common necessities of school routine. 

Next to the problem of health conditions comes that of the course 
of instruction and training. What to teach and how, form one and 
the same oft-mooted problem. From lack of space, my only purpose 
here can be to point to a better method of solution than now obtains, 
through the action of our received school system. Practically the 
solution is now got by the odd combination of three factors, viz. : the 
course of study, the books, and the teacher. Of sound, round about 
sense, but a modicum is allowed to appear in the process of solution, 
and whatever comes to light in the result is for the most part a gratuity 
on the part of the teacher. 

One should think that the problem would be considered broadly ; 
first from the standpoint of the child's faculties and capacities — that 
memory and the faculty of comparison and judgment would both re- 
ceive suitable exercise, but that the aesthetic and emotional side, 
as being particularly active in the child, would also receive due atten- 
tion. That, secondly, the child's relation to the work-a day world 
would by no means be left out of account, but that always its faculties 
would be exercised on useful materials. And again that, as power 
and aptitude in the use of the mental faculties are to be preferred to 
mere acquisition, we would rather exercise all the faculties on one 
kind of knowledge, than the one faculty of memory on many kinds. 
In short it would seem that there ought to be a Science of Teaching— - 
a science comprising both a theory and applications, the former based 
on a sound Mental Philosophy, and the latter on a knowledge of 
methods and appliances. Allow me to hint that there is such a science 
as Pedagogics, and that if our system is ever to be the best possible, it 
must be based on this science. 

On every hand we are met by educational hobbies. Our school- 
rooms are made ghastly to the child, by the skeletons of method with- 
out the flesh and blood of real instruction, or the spirit of a genial cul- 
ture. How shall we here secure the good and avoid the bad ? What 
test apply ? Certainly the study given by the ages to Mental Science 
should be our great laboratory for testing these educational matters. 



Mental Philosophy does not always mean the harmonious, incessant 
struggle upward, like a Wagner in his cadences, to the ever unattain- 
able. There are also acknowledged facts and principles tending to 
application, and this application can nowhere be made to more advan- 
tage than in the school-room. If the old line of philosophers, from 
Aristotle to Kant and Hamilton, do not seem to serve us, we may per- 
haps gain something in the way of suggestion from the Modern Phy- 
siological School, as already so ably founded by Carpenter, Ferrier, 
Luys, Bastian, and the host of alienists. But if all these seem inade- 
quate or too remote, we have still to interrogate the long line of Philo- 
sophical Teachers from Socrates to Pestallozzi — from Comenius to 
Frobel. 

Not to grow too theoretical, allow me to illustrate the necessity for 
genuine theory and investigation, by reference to a few practical 
questions. In the first place one might suppose that " object lessons ' y 
were always what the advocates for them would have us believe : 
lessons got from objects, chiefly by the use of the senses, and there- 
fore a culture of the senses. Whereas, for the most part, they are and 
must be an exercise in "words." Though professedly intended to 
make pupils see so much, they are not unfrequently dull exercises in 
disjointed ideas about uninteresting objects. But we need to pause 
here, and get our philosophy of the relation between seeing and think- 
ing, in order to clear up the subject. To this end we quote from the 
late Professor W. K. Clifford,* who thus plainly puts a truth some 
new-fangled discoverers in Education seem to forget : " Now the won- 
derful thing to remember here, is, that the world in which we all of 
us live is not made up of the individual sensations of objects for the 
most part, but it is made up out of the general conceptions. If you 
try to think of what has passed through your mind during any day, 
you will find that a very small part of it is made up of those special 
sensations of sight and sound which you get from things, but that it 
is made up of the suggestions and thoughts which arise out of them, 
and which were carried on by means of language ; which were carried 
on therefore by the help of the particular perceptions of individuals 
included under them. The world in which we live is a world of 
thought — and not of sensation." We see, then, that simple perception 
of the senses, however important, does not lead us far on our way. 
The world too in which we live is not only a world of thought, but 
even the world which we see is for the most part what we think it. 



'Seeing and Thinking," by W. K. Clifford, F.R. Q ., page 107. 



12 

How widely different is the observation of most familiar objects ! 
Take an upward look at the heavens: — As a poet, Shakespeare views 
them thus imaginatively : 

" Look how the floor of Heaven 
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold. 
There's not the smallest orb which thou beholdest, 
But in his motion like an angel sings, 
Still quiring to the young-eyed Cherubim." 

As an astronomer, our lamented Watson bade us look through his 
* l optic glass," and his mystic equations, and thus behold "the wonder- 
ful mechanism of the Heavens, the contemplation of which must ever 
impress upon the mind the reality of the perfection of the Omnipo- 
tent, the Living God." From either of these I would not too suddenly 
descend to the ordinary vacant gaze at the Heavens, and call this 
" observation." So the world is something as we see it, and much as 
we think it ; and our seeing, something depends upon our senses and 
sensibilities, but more upon the eyes of the Past. And so "object 
lessons" may in practice lead into the unknown world of words, and 
" reading lessons " may bring us back into the actual world of objects. 

Again, to show the need for careful investigation, allow me to refer 
to the discussion concerning Industrial Education. The widespread 
interest in the subject is attested by the special course of lectures now 
being given by prominent manufacturers of this city. The time and 
manner of introducing the much needed instruction, are still matters 
of discussion. 

I was, therefore, particularly impressed by Professor Norman 
Lockyer's recent able argument, for a more complete general educa- 
tion as a basis for industrial life, and just as much puzzled by a quota- 
tion made from Dr. Siemens, in support of this position. Dr. Siemens 
substantially asserts that in Germany, of recent years, the pure technical 
schools have been receding, and that the Gewerbe or Industrial Schools 
have been approximating their curriculum to that of the Gymnasia 
or Grammar Schools. The statement may undoubtedly be taken for 
fact, but the inference that natural causes have here altogether pro- 
duced this result, or that Germany's experience is here particularly 
significant, is not at all so clear. We must not ignore the dominant 
military system, which by its laws determines with irresistable influence 
the success of one sort of schools and the unpopularity of the other. 
The fact is that Germany's military regime exempts students of the 
Gymnasia from two years of the dreaded and detested military life, 



J 3 

while it does not accord this privilege to the other class of schools. 
Under these unnatural conditions it is evident which one of the two 
classes the aspiring youth would choose. Particularly during the last 
decade and a half, should we expect the one class to prosper and the 
other to retrograde. 

While then in hearty sympathy with Mr. Lockyer's plea for a more 
extended general education as the true basis of industrial progress, we 
also believe that it does not require the rather uncertain support of the 
educational schemes of Germany. Indeed, we find that if we wish to 
be thoroughly grounded in any point in this great discussion concern- 
ing Industrial Education, we must give exceeding attention to the 
premises of our argument. This attention to the collection of facts of 
experience, this investigation of the necessities of the time, it is evident, 
can not be safely expected from those who are not professionals in this 
class of work. 

Whether then the problem of what to teach, involve Mental Science 
on the one hand or a careful investigation of tendencies and demands of 
actual life on the other, we are driven to the conclusion that the only 
solution worthy implicit confidence is that arrived at by the educator 
who makes the study of such matters a profession. 

From all the foregoing it may plainly be inferred that the greatest 
and most pressing problem yet remains to be stated. It is that of the 
efficient management of the schools by the community. Orators and 
essayists do not find it so difficult to suggest an improved character of 
school — better health conditions, more useful curricula, superior 
methods of instruction, but all these excellent suggestions are for the 
most part futile in issue. They may stimulate the imaginations of a 
few hearers ; in actual improvement little is accomplished. 

A superficial glance at the system of management encouraged by the 
public, discloses the blockade to progress. Instead of a simple pro- 
fessional direction, we labor under a management, in the extreme, 
cumbrous and indefinite. It comprises local school boards, a central 
board of education, teachers and occasional philanthropic quidnuncs. 
Supposing, now, a clearly important school reform necessary, how shall 
we effectively address the task ? Educational declaimers periodically 
assure us that it is the parents themselves who must take a greater interest 
in the schools, and there the buncombe ends. Not altogether to dispute 
their point, pray what class of interested parents shall carry forward our 
reform? Perhaps those who are phlegmatically indifferent even to the 
animal existence of their phlegmatic children, or it may be those of the 
exquisitely nervous type, who are in such a chronic hyperesthesia 



M 

about the mental education of their nervous offspring? Perchance it 
is the parents, in high rank and low, who live lives of idleness and 
ask the schools to train their children to industry and moral purpose, 
or those even who toil unceasingly in order that their children may be 
trained to school habits, that too frequently result in genteel idleness. 

Can it be those who are so highly religious that, upon the modern 
inquisitorial rack of newspaper defamation, they willingly break any 
teacher that unguardedly speaks of morals, or shall it be the irreligious 
and irreverent class, who while they are satisfied to allow the moral 
side of childhood to remain uncultivated, demand that the schools 
shall furnish their children a character ? 

While we allow all these classes to dispute whether our school should 
not be something like a nursery or a reformatory, we may take counsel 
of that great middle class, who at once with decided emphasis assert 
that we have directors and teachers to look after our schools. Clearly 
we gain nothing by declaiming about parental interest. The com- 
munity of parents has by its every action and inaction, placed the 
problems of school progress out of hand. It has consigned them to 
directors, controllers and teachers. But the community does not 
so plainly seem to know that the management is still very disadvan- 
tageous^ distributed. Directors and controllers, though usually non- 
professional, yet determine the school system in character and course ; 
and this at the odd intervals they may snatch from their ordinary 
business cares, and without being able to give that comprehensive 
study which these educational matters demand. So, happy go lucky, a 
system comes to be adopted, and to this system the teacher becomes a 
helpless slave. Higher than its inherent height the teacher can not, 
dare not rise. No wonder then, should we see stamped upon the works 
and ways of school life the principle of easy going — of laissez /aire. 

However, much we may respect the duties and privileges of directors 
and controllers, it should but rarely belong to them to develop either a 
philosophy or a practice in education. Through oversight or neglect 
the community has too much ignored this important point. It expects 
of directors and controllers what from the time given, and oppor- 
tunities of observation had, they are not competent to perform. And 
it places too slight an emphasis on the professional direction of our 
schools. It is the professional teacher that early learns the systems, 
deficiencies and impractical tendencies, and to him alone should be 
given the opportunity to correct the defects. 

Allow me then in conclusion to say, that if the community seeks the 
key to further progress in our schools it will find it, in endowing the 



i5 

teacher with opportunity for the study of the manifold bearings of his 
task, with power to determine his own system, with practical motives 
to high effort, and in short, in endowing the teacher with that 
dignity which belongs to a responsible, trusted, professional life. 
Whether the question be one of health, or of studies, or of general 
management, we have learned that the problem must be solved, if 
solved effectually, by professional experience and investigation. 
It becomes, therefore, the first duty of the community to hand the 
school problems over to those who by profession, are not only most 
vitally interested, but thoroughly capable in their solution. By es- 
tablishing a general superintendence' of schools, our Board of Educa- 
tion has already taken one step in the proper direction. And we hope, 
too, that we may regard this as but a harbinger of the introduction of a 
system of superintendence that will give to every professional force at 
work, in the widespread school districts of this city, scope, recognition 
and efficacy. The community has discharged but half its duty by the 
establishment of a supervision that allows some possibility of progress. 
It must, through its school controllers and directors, cherish the 
highest professional attainment. Realizing, too, the tremendous in- 
terests of future manhood and womanhood involved, it must, in these 
matters, place professional experience and attainment in undoubted 
authority. Only, thus, will it encourage the introduction of im- 
provements in our school management worthy of the profcundest men- 
tal and physiological science. 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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021 729 513 



Hollinger Corp. 
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




021 729 513 



Hollinger Corp. 
P H8.5 



